This final season of the year wasn’t particularly interesting, but it had some good ones none the less. If you want to see a full list of what animes I’ve watched, you can always check out My Anime List. Here is a list of animes that I watched from this season:

One of my surprising favorites of this season is Blend S. Our main heroine Maika Sakuranomiya has a bad habit of glaring at people, making her look mad and sadistic especially when she doesn’t mean to. After having trouble finding a part time job, she is scouted one day by an Italian man who is also the manager of Stile, a café where its waitresses are given unique traits. Maika is given a sadist trait because of her looks and has to adopt a dominant and cruel persona when servicing customers, particularly masochist ones.

This show to me is like a combination of the animes Working! and a bit of Kiniro Mosaic; Mostly for its customer service workplace environment and somewhat from Maika’s interest in foreigners and studying abroad. I love the humor and moments of fanservice, but I also enjoyed the shipping developments between some of the characters, especially Akizuki and Kaho. I can sort of relate to Maika as I have a natural angry look on my face, especially when I don’t mean to or am not paying attention to my surroundings. The season ended on a good note, but it did not feel like a true end. Maybe we’ll see more of this show in future, at least I hope so.

If you could already tell from the looks of it, yes it’s another one of those ecchi harem type animes. No it’s not great as it ends up becoming a constant double act of our protagonist being the straight man to the girls who throw out perverted lines all the time. If you want a better version of an anime like this, try Seitokai Yakuindomo.

The adventures of Umaru continues in this second season, where not much has changed. She still enjoys lazing around playing video games and eating junk food. However I felt that she shows more heart this time around, caring more for the ones around her even in her chibi mode. We also got more screen time for the other characters of the show, as well as being introduced to a couple new ones as well. Umaru redeemed herself in my eyes that she is truly a person who can balance family, friends, and her own personal desires.

Continuing off from the Love Live loss from the previous season, Aqours prepares for the next Love Live. They still had the looming problem of their school closing without enough applicants, so this was their last chance to attract new prospective students by trying to win Love Live! Despite their best efforts however, they could not reach the goal set by Mari’s father and thus closure was imminent. Winning Love Love for their school has always been their goal, but now that focus was shifted to use Love Live to immortalize their school’s name in history. With enough determination and teamwork, their efforts paid off and were victorious. They gave their old school a memorable send off and in the end, Aqours went their separate ways.

I thought that this second season worked much better than the first, primarily because Aqours distanced themselves from their inspiration, μ’s. Not once did I ever remember μ’s mentioned in this season, and I think it’s a good thing because it’s to show that Aqours is their own thing, not just a copy or shadow of something else. There was also a decent amount of character development, allowing almost each character an episode to tackle a personal issue with the group usually helping out. This season wrapped up Aqours story in the most ideal way, and while a bit too clean for my taste, closed up most of the plot holes that I can think of.

This was one of the best animes of the season, at least in my opinion and age group. Here’s a synopsis from MAL.net:

“For the first time since graduating high school, 30-year-old Moriko Morioka is unemployed—and she couldn’t be happier. Having quit her long-standing job of over 11 years, Moriko quickly turns to online games to pass her now-plentiful free time, reinventing herself as the handsome and dashing male hero “Hayashi” in the MMO Fruits de Mer. With the pesky societal obligations of the real world out of the way, she blissfully dives headfirst into the realm of the game, where she promptly meets the kind and adorable healer Lily. Befriending each other almost instantly, the two become inseparable just as Moriko herself becomes more and more engrossed in her new “life” as Hayashi. Eventually, Moriko adopts the reclusive lifestyle in its entirety, venturing out from the safety of her apartment only when absolutely necessary.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Moriko, a timid 28-year-old corporate worker named Yuuta Sakurai has also logged onto Fruits de Mer from the other side of town. Coincidentally bumping into each other at the convenience store one night, both write off their meeting as no more than just another awkward encounter with a stranger—however, fate has more in store for them than they think.”

Because I’m a 27 year old part time worker and avid anime/video game fan, I connected with this show quite easily. I know the feeling of working constantly, and having it wear you down. I also know the great feeling of unwinding by playing online games with friends. I may not play MMOs much specifically, but I get the gist of how Moriko feels in general with video games. As with any anime that doesn’t focus on a student, it’s a breath of fresh air. What’s also charming about this show is the development of our main characters Moriko and Yuuta, two individuals who meet by chance but grow closer to one another through a shared interest. The show had a healthy conclusion that we can assume leads to a bright future to the both of them.

This was an adorable anime short series to watch, that shows the absolute trust and love a married couple can show for each other. Here’s a self-explaining synopsis from MAL.net:

Chisato Mizusawa is a reserved but excellent and pretty assistant manager in her company. She has a secret that only her husband Sora knows, which is that she likes drinking alcohol, and she can become very cute when she is drunk! Even tonight, she gets relaxed (with the phrase “Shifuku~”) and drunk with the cocktail Sora makes♥. It’s a “Yoidere (Drunken Dere)” cocktail comedy of Japan’s closest husband and wife.

In this third season of Shokugeki no Soma, Yukihira faces new challenges in the form of taking on the elite 10 directly. Through trials and tribulations he grows his cooking skills to new levels, but not before a new enemy appears to change and destroy all that Soma believes in….

I enjoyed this season as it wasn’t just all about Shokugekis and all, but rather about the whole school and about how divided the ideals of cooking are between all the students. Because of that rift, and the fact that the majority of its source comes from the top tier students, Soma is forced to face his toughest battles yet, pushing him towards the top as well. Will this be enough to change things for the better? We’ll find out hopefully when the next season begins.

UQ Holder! is a sequel manga to the Mahou Sensei Negima! series both by Ken Akamatsu. Knowing this is important because I feel that you really need to be familiar with Negima! in order to understand all the references and general story. In this anime adaptation, it has been decades since the events from Negima! This story follows Tota Konoe, a young boy who grew up in the countryside. Two years prior, he was saved by Yukihime (Evangeline A.K. McDowell) after his parents was killed by an unknown person. Due to this he loses his memories before the incident, and Yukihime takes him under her care. Back in the present, Tota enjoys his everyday life with his friends until one day he is attacked and is left on the verge of death. Yukihime saves him once more, though this time by offering to live as an immortal vampire such as herself. He learns then that he is the grandson of Negi Springfield, and that the answers he seeks about his life lies with him at the space elevator tower in the city.

As a fan of the Negima! series, I’ve finished the manga and was quite interested in UQ Holder! when I discovered it on Crunchyroll’s manga page. With how rushed and incomplete the ending of Negima! was, I was hoping that this sequel would iron out the details about the Lifemaker and the fate of Negi and class 3-A. As of writing this, I’ve read up to chapter 127, but that was over a year ago since I last read a new chapter. When it was revealed that Tota was a clone of Negi in the anime, I wasn’t sure whether or not that was in the manga or just added for the anime. I’m also pretty sure though that the encounter and battle between Tota and Negi in the anime probably didn’t happen in the manga, as I knew that they needed to have some sort of climax and ending to the anime season…. At least not yet anyways. I felt that UQ Holder!’s manga didn’t have enough chapters for them to have a proper story to animate, so my expectations were not high for the anime. Though I guess having anything Negima! related animated is something good regardless, especially looking at the track record that the series has when made into an anime.

While the first couple of episodes adapted the manga well, I felt the rest of the season was too fragmented and rushed due to lack of content from the manga, and tied in an original ending to conclude the anime. I could be completely wrong as I haven’t kept up with the manga, but seeing how Akamatsu’s series-turned-anime tends to end up, I would not be surprised if this was the case. I do have hopes that UQ Holder! will eventually flesh out the Negima! universe, as well as becoming its own thing from the child professor, but only time will tell.

This season was sort of a strange one for me, watching wise. Because I was busy with other stuff while these aired, I didn’t get to watch them until most of them were completely done. I’m usually the kind of person who watches week to week rather than binge watching. I noticed that most of the animes I watched this season were romance based. If you want to see a full list of what animes I’ve watched, you can always check out My Anime List. Here is a list of animes that I watched from this season:

This was the first show I checked out of the Summer Season as it was one of the short episode animes that were easy to digest. The name of the show pretty much explains the main character; a stupid dumb girl named Yoshiko obsessed with bananas and doing what she wants. All of the other people around her have their quirks as well, like an abusive childhood friend, a perverted disciplinary committee member, etc. I found the show to be annoying at times, mainly because of Yoshiko. At times though, while she has showed that while she lacks book smarts, she knows how to enjoy life and tries to spread that to others, whether it’s wanted or not.

This is a story that revolves around certain students and one hobby. Amano Keita is our lonely protagonist who has a passion for gaming and becomes friends with Uehara Tasuku, who is secretly a fellow gamer and is someone who believes his life is perfect. We also have Karen Tendou, the club president of the video games club and Chiaki Hoshinomori, who constantly bickers with Keita. This is a story filled with a non-stop sequence of comedy scenes and misunderstandings. Our chaotic romantic comedy now begins!

Gamers! was a good anime that kept throwing the misunderstanding ball back and forth, enough to make you pull your hair out. The main character Amano Keita is not quite your typical lonely protagonist. He initially makes himself this way because he thinks of himself as inferior to others around him as a self-proclaimed gamer. As a person though, he is passionate about games that he will converse and argue with anyone who shares his interests. He eventually opens up to the people around him to the point where he cannot be called a loner anymore, and can easily talk to people without being nervous sounding.

The show had a load of references to games that were easily recognized, especially in the opening intro: Horror games like Resident Evil, Shoot Em’ Ups, the Super Smash Bros. Series, FPS (First Person Shooter) games like PUBG (which I’m real surprised to see here as it’s a new and upcoming game that apparently is popular enough in Japan for it to be perfectly shown in anime form), platforming games like Mario, Visual Novels, Rhythm Games, RPGs (Role Playing Games), Classic fighting games like Street Fighter, and MMORPGs set in a fantasy setting. Within the show were some direct usage of game footage as well like from a Persona fighting game. Crane games (UFO catchers) and smart phone mobile gaming was also shown as well. The last episode was almost all about explaining DLCs (Downloadable Content).

In this show, love triangles are overrated; it’s more like a love star as the five of them were constantly in doubt of who liked one another. That’s one of my issues with Gamers!, is that the beginning and end of the anime had game aspects, while the middle was more of just a rom-com style of anime. You could entirely remove the game aspect with another topic and still have the same dynamic and situations. The series was created to cater to games and the culture that goes along with it; to attract said audiences that have been increasing at a steady rate due to the development in technology and ease of obtaining.

The conclusion of this series’s season was no conclusion at all. It was just simply another episode that offered no closure for the characters or plot. The only thing that it did was sort of sort out the love star but besides that, not much progression in terms of their relationships. Sure I did say that the romance is more like the filling in the middle of the sandwich, but it’s still part of the series none the less. And because of its integration with the story and characters, I wish it was more fleshed out and balanced so that it did not feel like a completely separate topic from the title of the show. It was the characters themselves that tied the “games” and “romance” themes, and I do hope that if another season is created, that these could be blended in a way that shows that only Gamers! can do it right.

This anime was a mixed bag of sorts. This show is basically about a virgin guy trying to lose his virginity to a gyaru gal he confesses to as part of a prank from his friends, under the misconception that they are sluts. Most of the main male characters were immoral and sometimes downright wrong to the point where he not being a part of the show would have decreased the cringe factor. Besides that point, the show worked to try and show that you can’t judge a book by its cover, or in this case a gyaru/virgin guy.

Emotional tug-of-war between two girls who have boyfriends basically explains what happens in Netsuzou TRap. Here’s an actual synopsis from MAL.net:

Yuma and Hotaru have been friends since childhood, so it’s only natural that when Yuma is nervous about her new boyfriend, she asks Hotaru for advice. But when Hotaru starts coming onto Yuma for what feels like more than just ‘practice,’ what does it mean…? With boyfriends in the foreground but a secret, passionate tryst in the background, will Yuma and Hotaru try to forget what happened between them or have they fallen into a trap of true love and betrayal?

Mid Season Thoughts: This anime is one that makes me sort of hate it, in a good way I mean. I find it interesting to see the amount of people who don’t like what’s going on in the anime, from comments I’ve seen from each episode on Crunchyroll. Naturally the anime is trying to evoke mixed to negative emotions. It’s as if people don’t see the capitalized letters of the show’s name “NTR”. If you want to know the full meaning of the genre term, just do a search of it on your own, but in basic terms it’s “designed to provoke jealousy in the audience by proxy by having a character indulge in sexual activity with someone other than the protagonist.” I obviously don’t like what’s going on storywise, but I’m still interested to see how it all ends. Everyone involved just seems to get deeper and deeper predicaments, and it will have a bad end…. probably.

Overall thoughts: Now that I’ve finished the anime, it’s time for me to lay out my thoughts. I suppose things ended in the best way possible: The girl gets the girl, stays friendly with the guy she was going out with (Technically they never officially broke up so ???), and it’s assumed that the abusive boyfriend leaves them alone? Sounds ideal I know, but I’m not sure whether or not this is a true end, or just a conclusion that everyone watching can digest. I was expecting things to spiral all the way down, but it didn’t. On an emotional richter scale I felt it never went beyond a 5.5/6.0 out of 10, so it was relatively mild. I think that’s for the best as it probably didn’t want to scare people away from the NTR genre, rather it gave us a taste of the delicious poison that could potentially have people wanting more.

In this second season anime about the game making company Eagle Jump, progression through trials and competition that create drama sums it up. After finishing up Fairies Story 3, a decision is made to create a brand new game. Ideas from employees of the company put theirs’ out, but Aoba’s is chosen. While her concept wins, to the company it may not sell without a notable name behind it so Yagami Ko is directed to be the public character designer, while Aoba is the internal (and true) character designer. With her co-workers and new interns on board for this new series, they work to create a cutesy game called Peco.

I enjoyed the increased drama when compared to the first season. It gave the characters more of a push to work harder at their goals, instead of the show being more like a slice-of-life kind of show that the previous season felt like. I also noticed that the shippings between most of the characters was much more pronounced, but at the same time a bit lighter at the same time. Think of it as more love spread evenly all over.

The ending summed up everything nicely, and with an important moral ending: Keep working hard towards your goals. Don’t stay in your comfort zone too long or you’ll grow complacent. By going beyond your comfort zone, you can learn and achieve more than you would if you stayed safe. Don’t just survive, live. I won’t spoil the ending, so that you can experience that feeling yourself, that moving forward is the way to accomplish things that you may or may not have expected to.

This review for Re:CREATORS is for the second half of the season episodes 13-22, as well as an overview for the entire series.

Episode 13, aka the recap episode was done in a way that I’ve never seen before. It summarized the story up to the current episode, but with a few twists from narrator Meteora. I loved how besides just retelling the story, it also threw in some jokes about the creation of the anime, such as the difficulty of animating Altair’s hair or easing qualms about the use of a recap episode, which is usually seen as a cheap way to have filler.

Mid Season Thoughts @ Ep. 15: I’m liking the set-up that’s going on for the final battle. Whether or not we’ll see any kind of major fighting between now and the end, I’m not sure. As they said in the show, “No one knows how the story is going to end”, and I feel this can be interpreted in a couple of ways: The first interpretation is what most people would think; that because the “story” is being created to prevent an end-of-the-world crisis, and with the many uncertainties that lie within that plan, the characters in the show won’t know how it will all unfold when the end happens. Maybe though, there’s another reason why the characters in Re:CREATORS won’t know what will happen until the end. My second interpretation is more out there than feasible, but it would be quite amazing if it was the case. The way the show uses the term “audience” and talking about getting “acceptance” from them, in order for the elements that they are planning to use to lure and trap Altair, feels like they are talking about not only about the people in the world of Re:CREATORS who consume media related to the characters in said universe, but also directly to us viewers as well. After all, the main world that the anime takes place in is parallel to our own, a place where we create stories for our own entertainment and business. Imagine if our feelings and “acceptance” affected the series ending as well. That the creators of the anime were tracking our ratings of the show and incorporating it’s influence as part of the show. I know it’s a far fetched idea as most anime productions are done under a strict schedule, but it would be so meta if it was possible.

The second opening “Sh0ut” is another Sawano Hiroyuki masterpiece. What I love about his style when it comes to him making anime openings is that they are straight up serious songs with attitude. The beats and drops he uses are so addicting to listen to, even if it can get a bit overused at times. Either way, he’s my favorite anime soundtrack composer and I almost always check out an anime that he’s involved in. The opening sequence that goes with “Sh0ut” is simple yet effective, and is amplified by his music. The timing of the transitions, each character’s showcase at an angle where you can’t see their face directly deep in thought preparing for the final battle, Altair’s cute faces (which look so unlike her from what we’ve seen in the show so far), sneak peak of the battles yet to come, along with foreshadowing for additional story elements in between. I’m enjoying it so much that I can’t help but wave my hands to the transitional beats that is the second opening sequence of Re:CREATORS.

Direct after thoughts: I just finished watching the final episode, and else can I say but that this anime was exciting and emotional all the way to the end, in a word fantastic. While this anime was a great watch I will not say that it is flawless, but it definitely was interesting meta wise. As I mentioned in my mid-season thoughts, I had speculated that the “audience” could of referred to us actual viewers as well. Now that I’ve finished watching I can say that this is probably false, but it definitely still could of influenced how the audience was talked about in the anime. Most of what was explained about how they would approve what was shown, I could understand if those theories were used for actual shows marketing.

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This next part will be my summarizing of the story episodes 14 through 22. SPOILER ALERT if you don’t know already.

Episodes 14 though 16 was the set up towards the final battle, which was called the “Chamber Elimination Festival”. This was the lull of the series, where scenes dialogue and work by the Creators to prepare for the finale. This part got a little repetitive with the episodes ending with the reinforcement that their plans will bear the fruit that they’ve planted, even with the amount of uncertain factors in play. Luckily when this thought came to my mind, it was the last time this was used.

The final battle started in episode 17 onward, and it was all over the place, in a good way. We didn’t get the usual match ups which was a breath of fresh air. I didn’t want to see more of Alicetaria vs. Selesia, Yuuya vs. Blitz, etc. What I didn’t initially know was that Alicetaria had already planned to change sides to fight against Altair. It wasn’t obvious to me, but there were some hints when I look back, like when she visited Magane and what her Creator hinted she would do in the battle. I suppose that she decided to take a step back and look at things in a more clear perspective. Whether or not she knew that Altair killed Mamika before telling her so I’m not sure. It started with Alicetaria attacking Kanoya who hasn’t been in much of the battles sue to his large mecha. I did find it to be a strange matchup at first, but it was exciting none the less, to see how powerful Alicetaria was against a mecha defending with an energy shield. This was when it was obvious that she was planning to team up with him against Altair when she lead both of them away from Altair to avert her gaze during her clash with Selesia to set up for a combined attack against her.

All of these episodes had something different towards the progress of the battle, with trump cards being played by each side when the timing was right. The first trump card was the reuniting of Blitz with his daughter. The creator of his story used the crossing of Meteora’s story from the overarching Chamber Elimination Festival series as a way to introduce magic that could bring back his daughter in a convincing manner. By doing so gained Meteora another character who would fight against Altair. In the combined attack with Selesia, Kanoya, and Alicetaria, things were going according to plan; Selesia was able to trap Altair while Kanoya and Alicetaria teamed up to charge at her. This was when Altair played her card, Charon, to stop the attack and to cause ruckus between Selesia and Kanoya. Charon is Selesia’s battle partner in her story who she sees as a mentor and love interest(?). She ends up having a conflict of interest when he explains his stonewall thoughts about how the world of the gods (the real world) should be changed or destroyed for their gain or revenge for how their fictional world turned out to be, as Kanoya and Charon fight each other. As this new fight began suddenly, Alicetaria makes her stand known to Altair, who tells her that indeed she was the one who killed Mamika, a relief of sorts because of how strong minded Alicetaria is. They attack one another, with Alicetaria ending up on the receiving end of her own attack, thanks to Altair’s own powers. This eliminates yet another Creation from the story.

The next trump card in my opinion was the new and improved battle version of Hikayu Hoshikawa. Her first appearance in her new gear was used as a comedy/fan service break, but she showed that she could fight in her own right with her martial arts super powers. She gained her new abilities through acceptance from a spin off fan disc that her Creator made for the battles. She could pack a punch that blasts the ground, even easily kick away a fully charging magic mecha without problem. The complete change from a non-combatant to powerhouse fighter made her an easy target for Altair’s reset-to-origin ability, which reverted her back to a regular high school girl in love.

An unintentional trump card came from spoilers of Sho and Yuuya’s series, where Yuuya revealed that he did not in fact kill the ones close the Sho as he thought Yuuya did, and that the one who gave him his “persona” like partner is the one responsible. Apparently Yuuya played along with this lie because he thought that was Sho’s way to hang out with him. With this fact now public, Sho and Yuuya partner up once again, alongside Blitz and Hikayu against Altair and Charon.

With Charon being Altair’s shield, it became evident that he needed to be removed from battle to get to her. Because he was in his own flying mecha, this only allowed Selesia and a damaged Kanoya to do battle with him in the sky, with the others attempting to fight Altair. They both are unable to singly keep up with Charon, who was a formidable fighter in his world. His motivation for fighting through Selesia’s understanding and acceptance of her Creator and his world, is that he is tired of fighting and just wants it all to end, regardless of how it ends. Selesia ends up having to sacrifice herself to take out Charon as he will not back down, assisted by Kanoya who initially refuses to but does under the honor of being a hero in his own story. With this Altair was now on her own, but with the loss of yet another couple of characters.

Even with the loss of troops on her side, Altair was able to gain sympathy and acceptance from the audience giving her control of the story within the Birdcage (separate dimensional space). In order to get control of the situation, the Creators summon their secret weapon, a new character based on older designs of Altair that shared the same power as her, the Holopsicion (reality bending powers). This new entity named Sirius is able to fight on Altair’s level and is even able to seemingly subdue her by trying to take over her being. However, it seems the opposite took place as Altair gained control over Sirius, changing her appearance to look like a mix of both characters. With most of the characters out of commission to take on Altair, the end loomed near.

Souta who was watching with the audience decides to try and use his secret weapon that he ran by Matsubara. Souta’s plan was slightly hinted earlier, so it wasn’t totally out of left field, but I figure for people who were not expecting it, or that it felt out of place, that the anime tried to justify it by explaining it thus so. Souta created a new character for the story, or rather one based on who was central to the conflict of the story, Shimazaki Setsuna. Yes, Souta created Setsuna so that Altair can meet her Creator. A Creation meeting another Creation who was created by a close friend, who both created Altair. When Setsuna was talking with Altair, I felt that Setsuna wasn’t just talking for herself, but also for Souta as he is partly her creator as well. I could feel the emotions coming from Altair, who only wished to meet her Creator. Because her motives came from Setsuna’s feelings towards the world at her own end, it was sad to hear that Altair’s life was caged to those feelings as well. I felt sorry for Altair at this point, as she simply fought for the injustice that she felt Setsuna was subjected to. Setsuna explained to Altair that while she created her, she is also everyone else’s creation as well. While she may be trying to destroy the world, she is not just a villain but also a protector and inspiration for the weak, like Setsuna. Altair’s Creator accepted her fate, but Altair herself would not take that as the only path for Setsuna to take. When Setsuna was created, she was also formed at her final setting, a train station. An alarm signaled the arrival of a passing train, which she attempts to fall in front of. Altair sprung to action to fight her creator’s destiny, by trying to destroy the train and reaching out to her. Altair says that she can use her power to create a world for Setsuna who can then make stories once again. Upon grabbing her hand they are transported to another world where they will both exist as Creations and Creators. Setsuna remembers Souta, who tears up thinking about Setsuna and what she meant to him, before the screens glitch out towards a “The End” screen.

It seems that the audience mostly approved the story as Altair is now gone, in a better place in everyone’s minds. The Birdcage disappeared and the world was saved from destruction. While losses were made like with Selesia, Meteora assures Matsubara that even if she died in this world, that was only one of the many possible branches her story could have gone. She still exists in the story that he continues to write.

With the world slowly but surely stabilizing its Restorative (logic) Power, the Creations decide to return to their own worlds while they still can. They say their final goodbyes to their Creators before leaving through a magic gate created by Meteora. As the final Creation left, the Creators say their goodbye’s to her. However, it is revealed that as the caster of the Gate of Return, she is unable to go through it herself, hence she decides to stay in the real world, to everyone’s disbelief. She eventually loses her magic power due to the world’s logic, and states that she wants to become a Creator of her own right. The overall moral of the story of Re:CREATORS is that everyone has the ability to create something beautiful. Whether or not it is widely accepted, it does not matter. What does is how you express your passion and despair into a story that captivates and motivates others to read and relate.

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There are a few things I want to address that affected my overall rating for this show. The first obvious one is the lack of Magane at the very end. All of the Creations whereabouts except her were shown. I can only assume that she stayed in the real world as she was not present at the Gate of Return. I doubt that she would been able to go using her own power based on the fact that a large amount of power is needed. If she did decide to stay in the real world, she would eventually lose her abilities as well. If spotted she might be arrested for her previous actions before being allowed to live freely in the real world. Knowing how she is, without her power she would just be seen as a sort of creepy character. I don’t know how she would live in a world like ours without her power to make things “interesting” for her. The only hint of what might have happened to her was from the last time she makes an appearance. She is seen at an airport when aiding Souta to summon Setsuna. She probably planned to journey far away, probably to never be seen again.

The second factor that bugs me slightly is the story convenience factor. Playing off of the “impromptu” idea that the Chamber Elimination Festival was based around, the Creators had ideas that they would implement for the Creations to use as firepower against Altair. How it was used was purely up to them, which is what made the ending mostly unpredictable as I like it. However, what I found didn’t seem to flow well with the story was the sudden “flashback” to Setsuna. If I was an audience member, and I’m seeing the moment where Altair takes over Sirius, it would have seemed a bit weird if all of a sudden a flash a light happened and another new character showed up that was emotionally close to the main character Altair. Maybe the premise was suppose to be that Sirius, who was an earlier version of Altair’s concept, at the very least awoke memories within her of her Creator, hence the flashback looking setting. I didn’t have these initial feelings when I first watched this scene as I was in the moment, emotionally invested to see how it would turn out. Now that the high of binge watching this show has faded away, I notice how planned the final battle was; organized but fragmented so that the story ideas could be used whenever was best. Even thorough this negative aspect, the show acknowledged this from the scene where it was shown that some people did not like how the story seemed to be made up along the way.

The third is the lack of explanation for how all this could have been possible. We already know about Setsuna and what caused her to die. What I don’t understand is where Altair came from in terms of her materialization into the real world with powers that are beyond logic. After that it’s easy to say that everything that’s happening is because of Altair and her reality bending Holopsicon. Altair’s abilities comes from the many fan created stories that have spawned on the internet. However if the Creators world is suppose to be a reflection of our own real world, then what can explain how enough “acceptance” can create magic and weapons that can not logically exist in said world. This is what I cannot wrap my head around, and I wish there was something to fill in this gap in the story, so that I can accept it as well.

The visuals and story may be the cake, but for me the music is the frosting, or flavor. As I mentioned earlier, Sawano Hiroyuki’s music is what gives life to this show, and others he’s a part of as well. I don’t think I would of liked this anime as much if he wasn’t doing the music for it. The atmosphere the music gives the battles, as well as the calm times, it’s almost always perfect for the situation. The only kind of Sawano music that I don’t like are for funny scenes which end up sounding either cheesy or just strange, but I can live with those as long as I get everything else he creates. My only complaint is the overusing of some songs for certain scenes in this show, especially “BRAVE THE OCEAN”, which was first played during the first fight between Selesia and Mamika, but more known in episode 10 during Selesia’s Revise temporary power up. It has that “miracle has happened” or “going according to plan” aura that faded with each use.

Overall this anime is my favorite of the year and probably will be a recent favorite for a while. Yes it may be dialogue heavy, and yes it has issues and plotholes, but that’s besides the point. I thoroughly enjoyed my time watching this show from start to end. I may have been in the heat of the moment during my marathon of the second half, but to me that does not change my feelings for this show even after looking at it after cooling off. Re:CREATORS was an exciting show that I had on my mind most of the time before I had a chance to finally sit down to finish it. I just wish I knew people who liked the show as well.

I stopped watching mid-season and never had enough interest to continue it. It’s not that Sakura Quest is a bad anime, but it’s extremely laid back. Compared with the other interesting shows of the season, I ended up dedicating my time to them over this.

This short episode format anime was a breath of fresh air for the rom-com genre for me, as it wasn’t the usual scenario where the progression is slow and cliché.

Tsurezure Children depicts various scenarios of young love coming to fruition, along with the struggles and joys that it entails.

This description courtesy of MAL.net is what makes this a good watch for people who like romance animes. It has multiple couples with their own circumstances, with similar reactions to how you’d expect it to turn out in real life. (Hard for me to say this as I don’t have experience of my own….) I enjoyed watching how their relationships struggled and grew through like and love for one another. My favorite couple was Sugawara and Takano, a classic couple where Sugawara likes an oblivious Takano, who slowly grows attracted to him due to his kindness. Takano’s love inexperience makes it entertaining watching her deal with her new feelings, to the point where she likes him too.

I do hope for another season of this anime, as it only gave a couple of the couples a conclusion at the end. There were maybe as much as 10 couples/pairings, and with the episodes only being half the duration of a standard episode, there was just not enough time to give justice to them all. I want to see more of the pairings that are working steadily towards the couple status, as well as seeing the progression of the couples that have established themselves already.

This season had a pretty good mix of animes. If you want to see a full list of what animes I’ve watched, you can always check out My Anime List. Here is a list of animes that I watched from this season:

In this side story spin-off of Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Sword Oratoria focuses on Ais Wallenstein and her Familia under the Goddess Loki. The story runs parallel in timeline to Bell Cranel’s one, so we see scenes from the original series when they intertwine.

At first I thought that this was going to be more of a slice-of-life series than the original series was going to be, however now that this season is over, I feel that both series hold their own well. In the original series, Ais was seen as more of a boring character; powerful but lacking much emotion. By having a series about her, it helped to flesh out her character more, by showing her backstory up to the present. I’m hoping that both this spin-off series and the main will mix more in a similar fashion to how the To Aru Majutsu series has with its separate story focuses on Misaka and Accelerator.

A spiritual successor to Oreimo as it and this series was both created by the same person, Eromanga-sensei is about light novel writer and “protagonist” Izumi Masamune and his little step sister Sagiri who is known by her online alias Eromanga-sensei for her erotic illustrations. A shut-in since her mother died about a year ago, Sagiri is slowly acclimated to coming out of her room by her older brother Masamune, who learns is the author of the book she illustrates for. They create and share a dream of making a successful LN/anime series together.

I was attracted to this series mainly for its closeness with the Oreimo series, as well as for what the name of the series has to offer. Even though Sagiri is only 13, her ability to draw ero-art was top notch. It was later shown that her skill and habits comes from her late mother who seemed to work as a illustrator as well. Her older step brother Masamune, a self proclaimed genius of light novels, started writing when he was very young. With encouragement from fans of his work, his goal was to become a professional for his fans and career.

This anime series was slow but not in a bad way. While not much as changed, we can see that both Sagiri and Masamune are making headway towards their dream. They both have made new friends and are enjoying the road ahead of them. Even if times were bad in the past, things change and the only direction left will be the future. Sure Sagiri may not have left the house, but at least she has left her room right? I also enjoyed the other characters as well, Yamada Elf and her outward personality, and Senju Muramasa with her absolute adoration for Masamune’s LN work and admiration for him.

It was an enjoyable series overall. Some fan service parts were cringe worthy for characters clearly too young, but if you try to put yourself in their position, I guess it makes sense for why it’s normal for them.

The cutesy anime of the season, Hinako Note is about a country girl who is bad at speaking with others. In order to improve this part of her, she decides to move to Tokyo and joins the drama club in high school. She moves in to a boarding house/used bookstore/cafe that houses a colorful cast of people that becomes her friends. Together they help Hinako overcome her fear of interacting with others by starting a theater troupe.

I guess I started watching this one because well it looks cute. It’s pretty much an anime about friendship and getting over the little hurdles in life. One thing I do need to mention is how the fan service was served in this anime. For one, there wasn’t any during most of the first half of the season, and it definitely wasn’t expected in this kind of show. When it did show itself it was quite blatant, and felt a little forced and unnatural for how innocent it generally projected itself overall. I’m not saying it was outright bad to have it, but rather it should of been done in a soft cutesy way rather than straight up bunny suit / skimpy outfits. Besides that, it was an OK casual anime to watch.

I binge watched Little Witch Academia (TV) as I didn’t have time to watch it when it started at the beginning of the year. I remember when this series was created from the 2012 Young Animator Training Project, a government program to train young animators on-the-job. Studio Trigger was part of this program and created LWA from it, gaining praise from viewers of the first short movie of this series. A Kickstarter was run to produce a sequel short movie which surpassed its funding goal, and was premiered at Anime Expo back in 2015. I got to see that when I went and it was awesome, showcasing itself in a classic Trigger fashion.

The TV anime version of LWA was announced in a clever way, through one of Trigger’s other series, Space Patrol Luluco. Space Patrol Luluco is chock full of references to Trigger’s other works such as Infernal Cop, Kill La Kill, and LWA. At the very end of the last episode of Space Patrol Luluco, you see Luluco essentially pass the baton to Akko of LWA, a nice touch to give it good luck in its future.

The Little Witch Academia TV anime was a blast to watch. Spanning 25 episodes, it tells the story of a girl named Atsuko Kagari aka Akko who dreams to become a witch like Shiny Chariot, a magic performer who taught her that “A believing heart is your magic”. She enrolls in the same school that Chariot went to, Luna Nova, to study magic to eventually reach her role model. There she befriends all sorts of people, and learns what magic can do, for others and for herself.

The anime was done in two segments; The first half of the season shows Akko struggling but slowly learning the basics of magic. A bunch of random events happen to our overly energetic main character who does whatever she thinks is right. Even if she doesn’t think things through, it seems to work out in the end. The second half starts with the introduction of an antagonist of sorts, and Akko learning about the true purpose of the Shiny Rod. The Shiny Rod is revealed to be the key to break the seal of Grand Triskellion, an magic with tremendous power that can change the world. The Nine Olde Witches sealed it within Arcturus Forest due to dangers that it posed if fell to the wrong hands. And thus, the Shiny Rod (Claiomh Solais) exist as the only key to unlock it, if its wielder is able to revive the Seven Words of Arcturus. I won’t spoil much more than this, but this definitely adds solid context to Akko’s actions and the world around her.

I really enjoyed all that Little Witch Academia had to offer. Action/comedy moments that bewitch your heart. Near the end of the series, upon reviving the final Word, I had goosebumps all throughout that scene, as if the magic within my heart was reacting to it. Trigger knows how to build up to a great ending, and I’m glad that I got myself to finally sit down and watch this fantastic series. The only nitpick worth mentioning was the sometimes cheap animation look. It’s not really a complaint, but rather noticing an art style that has charm. (Probably done for a more comedic look, and budget saving tactics.) I will look forward to Trigger’s next anime for sure. You can count on it!

My favorite anime of the season, and a while actually. Re:CREATORS is an anime where genres fight against each other knowing that their worlds are a creation by people in the real world. Created by studio TROYCA, and music by Sawano Hiroyuki, the duo who also created Aldnoah.Zero what it was, this series was something I was excited for hearing that these two were working together again. The first synopsis I read for this anime was a bit confusing:

Humans have created many stories. Joy, sadness, anger, deep emotion. Stories shake our emotions, and fascinate us. However, these are only the thoughts of bystanders. But what if the characters in the story have “intentions”? To them, are we god-like existences for bringing their story into the world? Our world is changed. Mete out punishment upon the realm of the gods. In Re:CREATORS, everyone becomes a Creator.

(Source: ANN)

This gave me a vague idea what it was about, but luckily it looks that MAL.net got it much better:

Humans have designed countless worlds—each one born from the unique imagination of its creator. Souta Mizushino is a high school student who aspires to be such a creator by writing and illustrating his own light novel. One day, while watching anime for inspiration, he is briefly transported into a fierce fight scene. When he returns to the real world, he realizes something is amiss: the anime’s headstrong heroine, Celestia Yupitilia, has somehow returned with him.

Before long, other fictional characters appear in the world, carrying the hopes and scars of their home. A princely knight, a magical girl, a ruthless brawler, and many others now crowd the streets of Japan. However, the most mysterious one is a woman in full military regalia, dubbed “Gunpuku no Himegimi,” who knows far more than she should about the creators’ world. Despite this, no one knows her true name or the world she is from.

Meanwhile, Souta and Celestia work together with Meteora Österreich, a calm and composed librarian NPC, to uncover the meaning behind these unnatural events. With powerful forces at play, the once clear line between reality and imagination continues to blur, leading to a fateful meeting between creators and those they created.

This synopsis nails down what it’s about more directly. What’s also awesome about this season is that it runs for 22 episodes, a better way to flush out the story. So far it’s about half way done, and it has been an up and down ride. The first few episodes were wordy in describing the series’s universe, but that’s because this is a relatively new project as the manga looks to only have started a couple of months ago. Whether or not the anime version is following the current manga, is on an original storyline, or is parallel to the manga but ahead of it, I’m not sure.

I’m definitely enjoying most of this anime, but it’s not without things that bug me. First off the main character: Enter Souta, a weak sounding guy who is emotionally scarred after indirectly causing a friend’s death. To me he got on my nerves because he looks like he was going to cry every so often. At this point in the anime it looks like he’s finally soaking up his tears to do his part in being helpful. I hope to see him grow out of his depression to not bring the rest of the cast down.

The second irritation is Magane, a character who talks too much, enjoys causing chaos and killing, and has an ability that I still have a hard time trying to understand. Here’s her ability description courtesy of MAL.net: “She possesses an ability called “Infinite Deception of Words” that allows her to bend reality through lies and deception; by telling a lie and manipulating somebody into rejecting that claim it creates a “lie of a lie” which by proxy makes the initial claim become real.” Can someone tell me how this works? I’m running this example in my head: Say something is blue, but she says it’s yellow. I reject that it’s yellow, so…. huh? I can’t even run a simulation in my head for this. The anime examples don’t help either. Let’s just say she plays mind games and whatever she wants to become a reality happens.

The scene where Selesia gets a power up in Ep. 10 is one of those moments where everything comes together. The atmosphere of the battle, Sawano music doing its thing, and the transitions, pacing, and emotions. It’s those rare amazing anime moments that stay in my mind, leaving me to constantly think of the show and what to expect in its future.

I really wish that this anime had more exposure. It’s not available on Crunchyroll or Funimation, only Anime Strike (Amazon) as far as I know. There also isn’t much advertising for it that I’ve seen. Maybe it’s because it’s a new IP, that it’s not an established series, that advertisers don’t want to take a risk with it. Maybe if it does well enough, and the story demands it, another season can be made with a potential for more viewers.

We’re only halfway done with the series, so I’ll have my full review of Re:CREATORS in a couple months. I’m enjoying it, you should try watching too. If you enjoy anime in general, and like to see swordwomen, magical girls, tough guys wielding personas, floating gunmen, giant mechas, and a crazy psychotic high school girl duke it out for the entertainment of a dark version of Hatsune Miku who uses an endless array of floating swords, then please take a look for yourself.

I wasn’t originally planning to watch this series because it looked like another one of those magical academy type of shows, but after seeing some clips on social media, I decided to give it a try. The difference between this anime and others like it is that that main character isn’t some student, but rather a new teacher named Glenn Radars. He’s quite simply put, a bastard who seems to be a selfish, laid-back, full-of-himself kind of guy. (The English name of this series is Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor.) While that is what he projects on the outside, there is more to him than meets the eye. He was formally part of an elite magic military group, where he was known for his killer instinct. During this time, he lost someone that he cared for that he was trying to protect. After abruptly leaving the military, he became a teacher under orders from Celica Arfonia, his adopted guardian who taught him magic at a young age after losing his family. As a teacher, he learned again what it means to be responsible, and to care for his students, especially because one of them looks like the one he lost in the past.

The show itself was entertaining, especially with Glenn in the driver’s seat. He may not have been a particular powerhouse of magic, but he made up with his intellect, physical strength, and charisma. One of the minor things that detracted my liking of the anime was the pacing. If you look at the anime based on its main conflicts, then you might notice a trend. Every few episodes is like a mini story in itself surrounding Glenn and one of the other main characters. It was almost like every 3 episodes that it was focused on a character; Glenn, Glenn and Rumia, Glenn and Re=L, Glenn and Sistine. While in hindsight this pacing structure is solid, it also made it a little predictable for how the anime was going to proceed story wise once noticed. This may not be a bad thing all things considered, but its just something that I thought I should mention as part of my review.

In this second season of Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend .flat, we finally see much more advancement of character development, as well as cute moments from most of our female main characters surrounding Aki Tomoya.

I am glad that things moved forward in a consistent way. There was much more drama surrounding their relationships, and the more or less realistic ending of moving toward new opportunities. Katou Megumi really shined when she showed her emotions. What made her “unique” was her boringness, because whenever she would express her happiness or sadness it had more weight than someone who was emotional all the time. Utaha and Eriri also became bolder in their approach to Tomoya, and also towards their careers. As for Tomoya himself, while he learned valuable lessons from his peers about game and friend development, he doesn’t change all that much, especially the dense protagonist part of him. Overall I enjoyed this second season of an anime, definitely better than the first. If anything more I want see from this series, is the game that Tomoya and Megumi make together, the game that Tomoya wanted to make from the start. That would more or less bring it full circle in my opinion.

This anime will be a 25 episode season, and at this point it is half over so I’ll just jot down some of my current impressions of it. Here’s the quick synopsis from MAL.net:

“In the wake of a nationwide movement during the Bubble economy period, a small town in the countryside has revived its “mini-nation” tourism program; hiring five girls as travel ambassadors. The series will follow a year’s time of the five girls as they work in the tourism agency of a small failing town in an effort to reinvigorate it.”

This is a very laid-back and slow series that is interesting enough to watch if you are into slice-of-life. It can get boring sometimes, as I think I’ve fallen asleep a couple of times while watching, but that’s more because I watch anime late at night. I’ll give a full review at the end of the season, but for now it’s just another casual anime to watch.

Most of everyone’s favorite anime comes back in this Season 2, and boy was it slow. My first and main complaint when watching the first few episodes: The constant backtracking. While watching the beginning of the first few episodes, I just wanted the story to move forward. Can’t do that when a few minutes in we get a “12 hours earlier” scene that seems to last for the rest of the episode. I know that it’s trying to build context towards the ending of this season, but I just wish that it could of done that through linear storytelling rather through throwing us back and forth in the timeline. I’ve been hearing about the lack of animators in the anime industry, so that’s probably why they couldn’t run another 25 episode season so soon. That’s probably also why not much time in story was passed, as they focused on using big story elements to shrink the amount of episodes needed to engage viewers. For the record, I have not read the manga, so I’m not to say whether or not they are following the source material. If the anime version runs parallel to it’s manga counterpart, then probably my complaints are invalid. But either way these are my sole opinions as one who only watches the anime.

Besides my main issues, the season was solid in doing what it needed to do. The revealing of plot altering events were done well, though to me the impact of it was more like a “Huhhh…” than a “Huh?!” I don’t know, I wasn’t thrown aback by it at all. Maybe because the who-is-a-titan thing is starting to become all more common than it was back in season 1.

Season 3 has already been announced for 2018, so we won’t get a wait time as long as we did for the second. I plan to watch it as I’d like a conclusion to this series’s mystery of the titans, but I’m not even sure a third season can end it, unless they bring it back to a 24-25 episode season. We’ll have to wait and see once again.

This was another don’t judge a book by it’s cover anime. In WorldEnd: What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us?, it takes place far in the future where humans have become instinct at the hands of “Beasts” roaming the planet. New races arose and now live on floating islands that are out of reach of all but the most mobile of Beasts. (The following is the rest of the synopsis via MAL.net):

“Only a small group of young girls, the Leprechauns, can wield the ancient weapons needed to fend off invasions from these creatures. Into the girls’ unstable and fleeting lives, where a call to certain death could come at any moment, enters an unlikely character: a young man who lost everything in his final battle five hundred years ago, the last living human awakened from a long, icy slumber.

Unable to fight any longer, Willem becomes the father that the girls never had, caring for and nurturing them even as he struggles to come to terms with his new life, in which he feels the pain of helplessly waiting for his loved ones to return home from battle that his ‘Daughter’ once felt for him so long ago. Together, Willem and the girls gradually come to understand what family means and what is truly worth protecting.”

At first, it looked like it was a slice-of-life type of anime based on the later part of the synopsis and main image that was used on its MAL.net page. Turns out its more of an drama/action/romance genre, and it does so quite well. What I liked about the main character Willem was his attitude. He wasn’t an annoying shy guy, like we’ve seen in other world animes. He’s a smart, strong character with a tragic backstory. He may have been a hero before, but that time has gone and passed. Even then his motivation to protect what he cares about has not dimmed, rather he found new reasons to live through it. Every so often he may show vulnerability from his emotions, as a man out of time who lost everything, but that makes him relatable.

As for the girls, they’re a cute bunch but learning what they really are and what they’re for makes it bittersweet. I wonder how similar a Leprechaun and a human like Willem are, as there doesn’t seem to be much of a difference. They both even have some extra power, the flying/self-destruct ability for the Leprechauns and Willem’s super sprint/strength (though for Willem that could be because he was a hero in the past).

It concluded as you would expect when things continually fall apart. I was a little confused for what happened at the end, my question: Who survived? While the final scene hints at a rebirth of sorts, the whole ending makes me feel that at the very least happiness was held on until the very end. It gives us viewers hope that they found what they were looking for. I definitely hope that’s what happened.